


BLOODBATH

by SkipBack



Series: Zimvoid King AU [6]
Category: Invader Zim
Genre: Fun, Wow, but that's what you signed up for when you decided to start reading the zimvoid king, hear me out, i was also considering fess, look it's the bloodbath arc, things are angst central up in this bitch, what if the prof was called egon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-23
Updated: 2020-06-23
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:46:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,562
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24869350
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SkipBack/pseuds/SkipBack
Summary: p>Zib's life is spiralling out of control. In order to avoid visits from his nightmarish counterpart, Zib has decided to stop sleeping all together.But his body is not built for the stress he's putting it through. And a truth from Professor Membrane that would be best left unearthed isn't exactly helping matters. Falling a part and breaking down, truths and revelations are all coming out into the open, prompting the question: is Zib really as fine as he claims to be? Or is his health worse than anyone ever could have imagined
Series: Zimvoid King AU [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1748608
Comments: 6
Kudos: 22





	BLOODBATH

**Author's Note:**

> You guys have been waiting for it, so here it is: the overhyped _Bloodbath_ arc. 
> 
> "It's time you see what I'm really capable of, kid." 
> 
> (oh yeah, i cut the arc down to four parts. couldn't actually figure out how to extend the arc, so... yeah.)

The nightmares. 

The horrible, awful nightmares. 

The indescribable terror... the absolute unbridled horror! 

Each one more terrible and mentally destroying than the last... 

_Why did they have to keep coming back?_

Laying down to sleep was becoming a chore. How could he sleep, when he knew what would happen when he closed his eyes? Who knew what he'd see, who knew what could _happen?_ Why did he have to be able to remember each nightmare he had, in terrifying clarity? 

He shakily inhaled, glancing at the time. 

Almost five in the morning now. 

This would make this the tenth night he stayed up in a row (though it had weeks since his first nightmare), and his body was starting to feel the abuse it was taking. As who he was, he'd never had the best sleep schedule, and living in a place with no day-night cycle for approximately four or five years hadn't made it any better. But since his body wasn't exactly built to take this kind of strain. It was clearly due to still being human, even if he had no idea how much of that half was left. He'd assumed that at one point or another, his Irken half would burn that need out and he'd be able to stay up for weeks without sleeping. 

He still had yet to see that happen. 

Zib felt lucky that Ghost had taken a shine to Dib and chose to hang out with him more than he. Honestly, despite their apparent rough start, the two were actually quite the duo. Really, even though Zib occasionally felt responsible for the metallic pooch, he was glad to know Ghost and Dib were getting along fine. Ghost had the uncanny ability of knowing what was wrong with a person, one of the few things that he hadn't been programmed with at the start. It just seemed to be how Ghost was as a... well, person. Surprisingly, out of the both of them, Dib had been the one to get over it more quickly. 

Really, the only reason he was glad that Ghost chose to hang out with Dib more often was because Zib didn't need the robotic dog's concern over the fact he wasn't sleeping. He just... he just didn't need that. It was something he was sure he didn't need. Zib already had enough concern, so concern over the one thing he didn't want people to worry about... he just. Didn't need that. Maybe he could invent something that could help him no longer require sleep. So he'd no longer have to worry about being plagued with nightmares of a monster with his face. 

The one he'd creatively dubbed "Nightmare Zib". 

The fact he couldn't stop thinking about it when he was trying to drown his thoughts in something he'd found to read online told Zib a lot about his current mentallity. He hadn't absorbed a word of it; heck, trying to get back into it, he realized he had no idea what was going on. He'd have to start all over again. Zib gave a low groan, rubbing his eyes. The kind of stress he was going through wasn't something he knew his body was built for, with added Irken DNA or not. 

He already knew this stuff, and he was dropping info dumps on himself as though someone would actually be listening to his mind, or even writing them down so someone could read it. Mindreaders or not, Zib found it difficult to stop thinking. It was a huge problem of his, as a Dib. Thinking seemed to be something he wished he could turn off but couldn't, even when it came to thinking about things he didn't _want_ to think about. 

The nightmares, for example. 

There he was again, going back to the nightmares. Ever since its first appearance, the character of Nightmare Zib had been plaguing his mind more than he was willing to admit. Every time Zib tried to talk to anyone about it, his throat seemed to close up on him and his tongue wouldn't work properly. He couldn't tell Gaz, Ghost, Clembrane, his Zim, his brother, or even Professor Membrane about it. 

_His brother._

He couldn't even face Dib anymore, let alone think about him without a twisting pain in his chest. He and Dib really hadn't spoke after Ghost's creation. Any time they did, Dib awkwardly tried to talk to him until Zib had to leave before he could break down in front of him. Oh sure, he knew Dib was just trying to help in his own Dib way. Zib just couldn't look at him without wondering if he truly was a monster. 

Swirling back to the nightmares. 

His mind could probably go on for hours, if that was the only thing he was allowed to think about. Nightmare Zib was was already pretty tall, but he'd noticed that it'd been getting bigger each time he'd slept for the past few weeks. Along with that, the torture the beast put him through was getting worse and was too painstakingly realistic for Zib's tastes, so he came to the conclusion that not sleeping was a good idea. 

Now, he was debating on whether that was still true or not, but at least he didn't have to see the monster's sneering face every night, listening to it go on about the things Zib had tried so very hard to not think about, putting him through pain that only had a lasting impact on his mentality. 

It was only terrifying because he knew where its words could only be coming from — his own mind. Everything this Nightmare Zib character was saying... all things Zib himself had even thought about. It was getting harder and harder to deny. 

Did he regret his plan of destroying every single Irken from the multiverse? Not one bit, in the beginning. 

Did he regret destroying his universe? Only when said plan of eliminating Irkens from the known multiverse had been foiled by the worst Zim in existence. 

Did he regret killing his Zim? 

...that was a loaded question. 

He hadn't regretted it for a second at the start, as his nemesis had tried to plead for his life. Something that didn't seem very Zim-like for Zim to do, but Zib had pretended not to hear, elated as he finally defeated the alien menace once and for all. 

He hadn't regretted it as he managed to disrupt his father's keynote to show the world that yes, aliens exist! He had the proof right there that aliens existed, and he'd waited for some kind of praise for his discovery... but no one cared about that. All they cared about was the fact that this crazy little boy had interrupted the scientist's keynote... on World Peace Day, no less! 

He'd desperately tried to open everyone's eyes, but no one listened. No one even tried to see the truth. In the end, someone had chosen to throw something at him (smacking him in the face and chipping his glasses), sparking everyone to copy, and chase him off stage. 

No one had believed him when he'd shown the entire world proof, and he got the feeling his father hated him for it. Any time Zib had tried to talk to him, Professor Membrane would brush it off as just annoying buzzing in his ear. If asked about his eldest son, he'd say something along the lines of: "I don't have a son. Not anymore." 

So you could hardly blame Zib for falling into a deep depression. Gaz of all people had been the one who'd tried to lift his spirits. She'd been remarkably stubborn to give up for the first week, though Zib assumed it was only because she'd been sick of his schmooping around the house. 

But what was the point? 

That depression had steadily turned to rage. Rage towards the entire Irken race, for it was one of them who had ruined his life. He'd tried to form a revenge plan against a whole empire, but realized he couldn't. Not the way he was, anyway. So of course, he'd turned to a terrible idea he didn't think he'd need to even act out. 

He hadn't regretted taking Zim's PAK from his cold dead body for a second. His plan was to try and attach the PAK to his very own back, but he assumed it had gotten a little excited to be attached to something organic and very not-dead that it went for the back of his head instead. It had to be a fluke he even survived that whole process. As he'd later learn, only Irkens were compatible with the PAK, so living past the date of expiration... it was a fluke, had to be. There was no other explanation. 

Since he'd been trying to stop Zim from taking over the world, the irony was not lost on him when he used Zim's resources to take it over himself. It was the only way he could carry out his plan, to destroy the Irken Empire once and for all. It was all pointless from the beginning, but... it would be all worth it in the end. 

And it almost had been worth it! There was just one eensy weensy, teeny tiny setback. So maybe something had went a little wrong when he tried to upscale the prototype zapper to a planetary scale and had the misfortune of overloading the Armada's generators that caused the annihilation of his reality, big deal! 

Okay, it was a pretty big deal. 

But hey, the explosion had torn a buncha of holes and created Pandora's Quadrangles through time and space! Infinite alternate timelines means infinite do overs, right? 

Of course, that idea hadn't really hit him until he spent a few days wallowing in self-pity until he came up with the idea luring Zims to what remained of his timeline. He'd almost expected it not to work; he'd thought every Dib in the multiverse had managed to kill their Zim off. But no, as it turned out, he was the only one to ever defeat his nemesis in such a manner. Admittedly, that had actually made him rather proud of himself. Because in that case, that must mean he was the Ultimate Dib. 

Still, everything had changed when he'd found that only one other Dib in the entire multiverse had found his way to the "Zimvoid". He hadn't understood it, but he'd come to the conclusion that this other Dib had either noticed the coded signal and was suspicious of what it was... or he was too dumb to pay attention to the signal and he missed it. Which Zib had found interesting and funny at the time, so he'd leaned towards the latter idea. 

But he'd wondered... what if this Dib was just a stupider version of him? Like, if this Dib was smarter, he could actually achieve the same thing Zib had? It was an interesting idea, but Zib hadn't dwelt on it. In fact, he'd made the other mop since he wanted to keep him out of the way, and since he needed someone to do it anyhow. 

Zib almost wished he hadn't done that. Because once he did, things went downhill. 

The other Dib had figured out what the Zimvoid actually was. He'd realized Zib had done something to his universe. Zib had been a little impressed, until it turned out Dib had just been another "useless human" and he'd also released the Zims, and they'd decided to use the weaponary Zib had built against him. 

But that wasn't even the worst part! That wasn't the worst part of the whole ordeal, because the worst part was that the muliverse's _worst_ Zim had been doing something behind the scenes, and that was a plan to use the portals to force all the Zims to eat a packing peanut the same day he had (honestly, Zib had truly, actually had no idea you could change the day the portals lead to. He still wondered what he would have done if he'd found out about that sooner). 

The Zim had thought that would merge the timelines. Which obviously was not how that worked. Worse still, he'd wired Zib's zapper to overload and explode, causing the Pandora's Quadrangles to close up and suck everything to whence it came. And then Zib was alone again, so he threw himself off the top of his tower, thinking that was how his story would end. 

When he managed to survive, his pride in being the only Dib to kill his Zim started to turn to regret. If he hadn't even considered killing him, he wouldn't have been in that situation. 

Long story short, ending up in this timeline was a real punch to the face. 

Zib sighed, checking the time again. Only ten minutes since he last checked. Relaxing was a bad idea right about now, as it would probably lead to sleep. Sleeping, after a line of thought like that... oh no, Nightmare Zib would a hundred percent prey on it. He couldn't deal with that now. 

So it was either try to start over what he was reading or get up. 

Read or get up. 

Get up or read. 

He found he didn't have the energy to start over what he was reading, so the only option that was left to him was to force himself to stand up and head down to the kitchen. No one else would be up at this hour. Probably. It would either be Ghost, or someone else, he wasn't sure who. It wasn't weird for Dib to be up at this hour, but he was hoping it wouldn't be him. 

The only people he could probably handle with his current energy was either Gaz or Professor Membrane. 

Really, he'd feel better if he had to deal with no one right about now. 

_Eyyy! I was wondering if you were ever going to wake up._

Zib stopped in his tracks, slamming his eyes shut and shuddering. The first words he'd ever heard from Nightmare Zib... the first words that always came to mind before he reached the kitchen. It was surprisingly innocent, compared to what the beast would later tell him. 

But it wasn't in there. He was awake, and it wasn't going to hurt him now. 

Really, he had no idea why his first instinct was to head down to the kitchen. Maybe this room just brought him some odd comfort he didn't know how to explain, even though it reminded him of his first nightmare, where his PAK had been ripped out and his spine had been broken. In his dreams, but it had felt so real that he couldn't help but wonder if it actually was a dream. 

Zib eventually realized his body was acting on autopilot while he was thinking; he had no idea what he was looking for in the fridge, but he closed the door with a heavy amount of confusion. 

And then noticed Professor Membrane in the doorway and just about leapt out of his trenchcoat. 

It always took Zib a second to go from _Okay, I'm about to be invisible again_ to _Oh wait, this Dad doesn't do that_. He looked no different than usual, but at this second, something seemed different about the professor that Zib couldn't put his finger on. Whatever it was, it was bothering him that he had no idea _what_ it was. 

Membrane gave him a particularly awkward look, uncharacteristically quiet as he made to go about his business, occasionally glancing at Zib. Clueless to what he had done, Zib curiously followed his movements. 

There'd been a lot of questions on the professor's end, all of which Zib hadn't been expecting. To be honest, he'd expected this version of the professor to be like "Oh, you're here now? That's fine, I'm not questioning it" on the first day. So really, he'd found himself speechless to be asked questions like "Why are you so thin? What happened to you? Are you alright?" 

He'd been furious the day the professor asked if he could "remove the metal egg on the back of your head", but it wasn't his idea. Zib wondered if he actually was over finding out it was Dib's idea (Zib had asked about that; Dib had been remarkably vague about the reason). 

Other than the incident with the claws, he'd found himself getting along well with this version of his father. Oh sure, this timeline almost exactly mirrored his own until the keynote, but he wasn't used to this after what he'd been through. Zib forgot that things were different here half the time. It was still disorienting, but in a good way. 

Someone cleared their throat and he was yanked out of his thoughts with a little involuntary "Eh?" 

"So... you're up pretty early," Membrane noted. Zib could see where Dib got his ability to start awkward conversations from. 

Zib shrugged. "I just... woke up early," he lied. "Couldn't get back to sleep." 

The professor hummed, his brow furrowed. Zib knew this look. It was similiar to the one Dib made when he could tell Zib was lying about something; the one where he'd "pursed" his lips (to be honest, it was more like putting his teeth over his bottom lip). Maybe he'd inherited it from Professor Membrane, along with the majority of his appearance. It was hard to tell, since he couldn't see the lower half of Membrane's face. 

His _face_... it was something about the professor's _face!_ But what about it was so... _off?_

"I feel that," the professor said. There was another look he knew from tracking Dib's expressions! The "I have no idea what to say here" eyebrow raise was painstakingly obvious. 

What was Membrane doing, anyway? Oh. So now tea time was also at five in the morning, huh? 

The professor cleared his throat, breaking eye contact. Which Zib found way too familiar to be a coincidence. Of course, he pushed that thought down; that comparison brought back memories he was still trying to suppress. 

Eye. 

Eyes. 

Something about the... eyes... 

_Oh no._

With a jolt of realization, Zib took a step back, his breaths coming in shallow gasps. Everything he thought he knew had all just shattered before his very eyes, and he was trying his very best not to scream. 

Membrane noticed his apparent distress. "Is everything alright, son?" he asked. 

"You..." Zib's voice came out as a croaking wheeze. His lungs felt like they were caving in on themselves. "Y-you..." 

Realization seemed to shoot through the professor's features, and he felt around his face. "Oh" was all he said when he couldn't find what he was looking for. The awkward air from before was back at full force as he held out his hands, trying to take a step forward each time Zib took a step back. "I-I can explain." 

Electric blue orbs looked back at him. They were so similar to Membrane's goggles that Zib could understand how he had missed that before, in his sleep-deprived state. But he knew he wasn't hallucinating. He knew despite how much he wished it was all some sick joke his mind was playing on him, what he was witnessing was real. 

"Irken?" Zib forced out, still unable to properly breathe. He tried to take a deep breath but it just wouldn't come to him. "You're... Irken?" 

Membrane stopped, sighing in defeat. "I am," he admitted, pulling down his pull-over. He looked guilty, his face surprisingly expressive. "So are you." He paused. "Technically, you are a hybrid, but that PAK of yours seems to have brought your more Irken side out." 

More air was forced out from his lungs at that, his throat closing up. "Wha..." 

"I don't have the full story, and clearly neither you or Dib will tell me what exactly happened," Membrane said. "But I assume that the little bit of Irken within you both... I don't know how you got that PAK, but if you were truly human... how did you survive longer than ten minutes? Why do you look like this? Now you know. You're part Irken." 

Zib glanced down at his hands. They looked pale and sickly, and they were shaking uncontrollably. Curling his claws in and digging them into his palms, Zib forced himself to look away from his hands, his body violently shuddering as he forced himself to look up at Membrane. This... of everything he'd went through, this was what his body couldn't handle the most. He tried to fight it, but his mind was already shutting down to save him from stress, even though he knew that once unconscious, he'd be facing something much more worse than the truth of who — or rather, _what_ — he really was. 

Was that the reason why he was a monster? 

His legs giving out beneath him, Zib collided face first with the floor. 

... 

Of all the ways he could have expected someone to discover they were half bug person, _fainting_ admittedly wasn't on the top of his list. No, that was because _screaming_ was at the top. 

Professor Membrane (or just "Egon" from an inside joke in his younger years he could barely remember the context to) carefully crouched down, rolling Zib over onto his back. Zib had seemed to have been struggling to breathe before, but now he was breathing just fine. Even when he had been awake, it had seemed as though the slightest breeze could knock the boy over. Honestly, part Irken or not, Egon was surprised that someone could look so... frail and helpless. 

Oh sure, he'd been monitoring the boy ever since he realized something was ailing him. But for Zib to collapse from just hearing he was a hybrid... and just from how he'd been able to survive attaching a PAK to the back of his head... perhaps he was more emotionally unstable than Egon could have ever accounted for. It had been foolish for Egon to even think they would be exactly alike, especially considering Zib wasn't an exact replica of Dib in appearance. So why would they be in personality? Even their mannerisms were completely different. 

Sighing, the professor picked Zib up, cradling the hybrid in his arms. Despite the circumstances, this brought back a couple memories of holding his boy child for the first time. He'd had no idea how to hold a tiny little thing like Dib before, so he'd quickly passed back the child to his mother, for fear of harming the small boy or even dropping him. 

Egon shook his head, forcing himself back into the present. Zib wasn't a teeny tiny thing. He was a remarkably bony teenaged hybrid, his head lolling off Egon's arms with his brows furrowed and his teeth grit in his sleep. That PAK really had brought out a lot of Irken traits in him. The teeth, the claws... he'd covered his curiosity over Zib's appearance (mainly his claws) as being a stupid "for SCIENCE!" thing, but Egon hadn't realized that as well as the outter traits that marked him as Irken, Zib had also developed the odd Irken fear of being studied and tested on by other creatures that weren't their own. 

Egon had only found out about that when the boy had clawed him in the face. 

Fun. 

He'd only been debating whether or not to tell Zib the truth. Since he'd seemed pretty emotionally vulnerable as of late, Egon wasn't sure telling him would be such a good idea. Of course, the one time Egon forgot to put his goggles back on, he probably ruined Zib's mentality. 

Five in the morning. Knowing Gaz and Dib, they wouldn't be up for at least a few more hours... that would give him enough time to find his goggles before he potientally emotionally scarred anymore of his children. 

A part of Egon was tempted to bring Zib down to the basement labs to run a few tiny tests. He just wanted to see how much Irken was running through the boy's veins, but it seemed almost cruel after Zib had fainted like that. The more inconsiderate-of-another-lifeform-that-wasn't-Irken part of him still ran deep. Yet... this was still his child. Sort of. In another timeline, anyway. No doubt about it that Zib was his child now. 

His other son. 

But it would be easier to take care of Zib, if he knew if he was more human or if he was more Irken. Right? Dib and Gaz were human with a slight touch of Irken, but Zib... what was the ratio of Irken to human in this tragic hybrid boy child? 

Egon ended up bringing the boy down to the lab anyway, gently laying him down on a table. He wasn't planning on dissecting the boy or... doing anything more physical than that. Just a blood test and an X-ray of sorts. That would be good enough to satisify Egon's curiosity. (And maybe the blood test could also tell him if the thing ailing Zib was an illness. A win-win.) 

Almost slapping himself when he realized he'd left his signature goggles down in the lab, Egon placed them back over his eyes and pulled the collar of his labcoat back up, setting to work. 

The blood came first. Zib furrowed his brow in his sleep when the tip of the needle came into contact with the crook of his elbow, but he didn't stir. His blood was an interesting dark reddish-pink color, as though it had been starting to turn the usual magenta of Irken blood but stopped halfway through. Odd. But interesting. 

He didn't need too much, but he just filled the small tube halfway to be better safe than sorry. Zib gave a small groan in his sleep as Egon bandaged his arm and waited for an analysis device to run a small test of its own on the blood. Egon subconsciously placed a hand on the boy's head in an act of reassurance that everything would be okay, even though he wasn't conscious to realize that. Although at the contact, Zib tensed before seemingly relaxing. 

When checking the results, Egon wasn't exactly sure what to think. There was no easy way to tell if Zib was more Irken or more human. It seemed as though his body went "screw that" and just smashed both halves together. 

The perfect blend of both. He was probably going to remain like this, stuck between being not quite either but both at the same time. No illness though. Despite how painfully thin he still was, Zib was remarkably healthy. 

(Egon couldn't say the same for Zib's mental health, though.) 

Now for the X-rays. It was more taking an examiner — a small Irken device that looked somewhat like an Earthen flashlight that could help a being peer inside another creature — and just observing. Zib's bone structure was still mostly human, though his wrists seemed thinner and more delicate. He was missing a pair of ribs, which was admittedly very concerning. Still had a plenty of organs, although the kidneys were questionable as human. 

Oh, but one part of his body was undeniably Irken: his feet. From the two toes right down to the heel. Egon couldn't remember what Irken heels were made of, but they could cut through the the toughest hide like scissors through paper. There was no skin over top of the heel. It was just a hard, sharp pale thing that grew out of an Irken smeet's foot when they got older. Zib's were shorter though and hadn't broken through the skin. Not as sharp, either. Almost like they were the butter knives of the knife-heel world. 

Wincing, Egon turned the examiner off. Now that he was thinking about it, Zib's sudden refusal to walk a couple weeks ago made much more sense. Egon honestly thought Zib was being melodramatic and whiny about walking for some weird human teenager reason. Zib certainly hadn't complained when Clembrane just started carrying him around the house. 

Zib had clearly been trying to hide it. But all that did was make Egon feel weirdly guilty, since he knew that wasn't exactly the most fun process to go through. 

The professor rubbed his hands together, his brow furrowed. Those tests... hadn't exactly been _that_ informative. He couldn't run anymore tests, but he knew Dib had inherited the resilence of an Irken from him... Egon didn't know. He'd have to study Zib, which he knew the hybrid didn't like. He already knew his senses were heightened... maybe observing would be enough? 

Making sure his goggles were still on (oh good, he hadn't taken them off again), Egon picked the boy back up and brought him back up to the living room, choosing to set him down on the sofa. Really, there was nothing he could really do for Zib without stressing the poor guy out further. All Egon could really do was keep an eye on Zib and hope that would be enough. He knew that Zib probably wasn't stupid enough to think that whole interaction had just been a dream when he woke up. Oh no, Zib had the brains of a real Irken... quite literally, in the PAK's case. 

The PAK. Egon bit his lip as he looked at the life unit on the back of Zib's head. That was probably the strangest place he'd ever seen a PAK be installed, and he'd seen Irkens with two of them, or on their chest instead of their back. It didn't even look like it could be removed the proper way, now that he was looking at it. It looked... fused to the back of his head, as though it had become a part of him. 

Egon wished he'd known that when Dib came to him suggesting they should take it off. In a way, he'd thought Dib had been as curious about it as Egon was though for different reasons. He'd thought Dib thought that this was a second chance of sorts, to get a look at a PAK (that hadn't installed itself onto his chest). Egon just wanted to know if it was actually Zib's PAK or he... better not think about that. 

Zib had downright stamped the idea into the ground. He'd said the PAK was staying, though Egon had thought he meant: "It's staying on the back of my head!" 

Now that he knew the PAK was _fused_ and not _installed_ to the back of his head... had Zib thought Egon wanted to permanently remove the PAK? Oh, the poor boy. 

Egon furrowed his brow when he thought it over. _Dib_ had suggested they removed Zib's PAK. Zib's PAK was fused to the back of his head. There was no way of knowing what would happen to Zib, mentally, emotionally (since most Irkens had some kind of emotional attachment to their PAKs) and physically. Would it have been difficult to reattach the PAK if they took it off? Would the life clock have started counting down? Would they have had no way of saving Zib until it was too late? 

Would Egon have killed his other son because of Dib? 

He didn't know. 

That was the problem. _He didn't know_. And clearly Dib hadn't cared to consider that it could potientally kill Zib, otherwise he wouldn't have made that suggestion in the first. Maybe Dib wasn't as much as an expert on Irkens than he thought he was. All he really seemed to know about Irkens was from Zim. And left-field theories about Irkens that made no sense (most of these theories he'd only heard while Dib was rambling to himself in his room). 

He'd forgotten about his tea in the commotion, but at least he was still able to finish making it. When he came back into the living room to keep an eye on Zib and to debate whether or not it would be a good idea to tell his other children the truth, he found that Clembrane was placing a blanket over him. 

He looked up at Egon, then held his smaller hand up to his lips in a shushing motion. 

Clembrane then left the room, and Egon knew he'd have no idea where he was until he popped back up out of no where. That was the scariest part about Clembrane; he just had a tendency to show up at random and leave again as quickly as he came. Egon knew the Florpus Incident wasn't some crazy stuff he dreamed up (which he told Dib to make sure he didn't somehow blow his cover), but he occasionally wished Clembrane had been. He just... he kind of disturbed him, even if he meant well. 

At least he finally figured out how to properly make pudding. 

Egon sighed. Now was the time to keep an eye on Zib, and try to convince himself to tell his other kids the truth. Based on Zib's reaction... it was not a good idea. But maybe they'd at least understand? Maybe Gaz would. She was just kind of like that as a person. Or maybe that would finally break her? Egon had no idea, but Dib... 

Dib was absolutely going to freak out. 

Oh well. 

Best hope he didn't wake his brother up with his potential screaming.


End file.
